An Ode to My Rock 'n Roll Skirt: Remake/Remodel from Zachary's Smile
I wore my skirt with my HessNatur tee to see Tori Amos at Radio City Music Hall a few weeks ago.
I got this amazing skirt at Zachary’s Smile (9 Greenwich Ave. at Christopher St) in NYC. This boutique has gotten lots of press, and carries a carefully edited selection of vintage pieces as well as several house lines created by the store’s owners, including Remake/Remodel, which takes advantage of used materials which are then transformed into something completely new.
My skirt above was made from old leather jackets (from the awesome bright green color I would guess from the 80’s). Seems from my inspection that there are at least two different jackets that were put together. The skirt is lined, comfy, and totally rock and roll. Leather is such a great material; long-lasting and durable. I would feel uncomfortable buying a new piece, not only because I’m a vegetarian, but because the tanning and dying process for leather (unless veggie tanned and heavy-metal free dyes) is extremely toxic.
Reusing vintage leather is a great way to get some of that edge in. And designing from older pieces means designers have to be a little creative (and they tend to be one-of-a-kind), a bonus for ecofashionistas.
Check out the Look Book on the Zachary’s Smile website; there you’ll see a number of new pieces made from combinations of conventional, ecofriendly and vintage materials.
Starre Vartan
Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.
